Set up Ranch

Rowan checked his inventory box carefully. 

As expected, the oily seaweed is gone. 

He did not expect the seaweed to have such an effect. 

Next time, he will test the effects carefully. 

Yes, there's a next time. As sad as he was to lose the number of slimes, Rowan felt the evolved slime's properties were better. 

When raising cattle, there must be regular culling. 

He had been feeling conflicted, as he did not want to kill the slimes which have been helpful to him till now. Who knows ! The little blobs of nothing are so greedy, they eat something before he could even tell them it's feed. 

Or , maybe they knew instinctively that seaweed could help them evolve. After all, animals instinctively know the good things for their bodies. 

From now on, Rowan would take care when storing the items bought from the mystery space shop ! 

For now, that's a bit too many barrels of oil. If he keeps it in the storage, it keeps consuming spirit energy. 

Rowan checked the remaining spirit energy just to be sure. 

What the ?!!! 

50143 ? 

He had about 160 energy before.. 

Where did he get this additional energy from ? dead slimes ? 

Wait ! That could be it . 

Slimes are organic and mana fused together. A lot of mana. 

If each slime released mana it held at death, that's a lot of spirit energy ! 

My ! 

'I really shouldn't think of them as pets. I will never be able to not kill them. ' Rowan thought as he looked at the cute blobs jumping around in their pens. 

Now that the crisis is over, he returns to the farm. 

Time to organize the land. 

He brought out all the earth slimes and the thorn slimes in his inventory. 

Most of the earth slimes he left in the naturally formed canal, to eat out the earth there to make a bigger and better canal. 

This canal needs to be able to let the water flow back to the pond not just on rainy days, but also on normal days, so that the water drained from the fields would go back to the pond. 

At the same time, he intended to raise the height of the fields. 

In normal times, it's an extremely unnecessary and expensive operation. 

After all, even if his time is free, the fuel for the tractors is not. 

However, now that slimes are doing most of the work, Rowan happily indulged in all of his absolutely impractical but good looking ideas. 

While the earth slimes are clearing out the canal, Rowan indulges in forming thorns. 

He made a soul connection to the thorn slime. 

However, there are limitations to how thorns could be formed. 

Thorn slime could only choose one of the thorn types he consumed to form thorns. So, he could form rose plant style curved thorns, a burr or the straight thorns of the palm trees. 

Given it's like this, Rowan just made straight thorns. 

Between each of the pillars, a foot deep trough is dug. Rowan filled the trough half way with burrs. Then, some loose soil. 

 Rowan carefully held the thorn, pushed it into loose earth. 

Then, he filled the trough with rubble, to weigh it down. Then, he patted on it with the small spade to firm the earth. 

It may not be a great deterrent, but for crops, the bigger problem is always the small animals which eat and run all the time. 

It took another four hours by the time he finished. 

Rowan could feel himself becoming more and more active as he worked. 

Now that he lined the border, he is sure the corrupted flesh and blood slimes will not go out of the designated area. 

Once he was done, he recorded the coordinates he cleaned up on the city website. 

It's not worth much, but he gets community contribution points. The people with higher community contribution points get preference in receiving base benefits. 

For today, this is enough. 

The city gates are going to be closed, but they could enter through the side door, if they show their cleaners mission. 

Rowan returned. 

This time, instead of water slime, he left the cold water slime underneath the ice. 

So, there's not a single drop of water around where he left the ice block. 

Only a little transparent slime under the translucent ice. 

The cool temperature of the house is like the finest luxury after the hard work of the day in the hot and humid weather. 

Rowan filled the tank with pure water from the water slime. 

The shower felt extremely refreshing, as his skin was almost at the stage of producing resin with how sweaty and sticky it is. 

' Ah ! I really should have appreciated all the farmers' hard work when I had the luxury. ' he thought when he finished. 

The moment his head touched the pillow, he was out like a light. 

The next day, Rowan opened his eyes rejuvenated from tip of his toes to tip of his hair. 

He never felt this good before. 

Is this the effect of having enough energy ? he wondered. 

Once again, it is fish for breakfast. Only this time, it is with millet congee instead of the standard oatmeal. 

Rowan did not cook anything fancy. They just need quantity at this time, not quality. 

So the boneless fish filets went straight atop the pan. There are more fish filets than porridge. 

Mina looked very happy to see fish once again. 

" Oh ! This is a different fish from yesterday. " She said in shock. 

Rowan nodded.

Once they were done, he packed the fish in a box and handed it to mina. He cooked almost a five person portion. 

" Eat it along with the afternoon meal. Share with friends, sell it to enemies ! " He finished his brotherly advice of the day. 

" Isn't sharing it with friends only ? Why give food to enemies ? " Mina mocked him. 

" Hey ! Because it rhymes. ! Also it is because we are poor. Charity is for friends, charging is for strangers. Little sister ! Being good gets you nowhere in this world. " Rowan taught bad knowledge to his sister seriously. 

" Really ?! " She asked doubtfully. 

' Why do I think dad taught us differently ?' Mina mumbled as she looked at her big brother. However, her dad always told her to be a good girl. Don't fight back.. Be good to everyone. 

Mina kind of liked her big brother's way a little more than her fathers. 

She did not like being good to all the people in her class.

Rowan met Edy at the entrance of the inner city to deliver his gas barrels. 

In the city app, Edy transferred him the money, took the truck from him to deliver the gas barrels to the storage station in person. 

In fifteen minutes, the truck is returned to Rowan. 

However, Rowan did not leave immediately. 

Instead, he went to the nearby base station, to get the permit for selling gas, as well as farm products, level 1 and 2. 

The permits of the old days did not apply to apocalypse any more. So, now the permits are not personal or commercial, but just farm or hunt products. 

Many people in the base grow basic greens, enough for their consumption, occasionally for a buck or two. Yet, even these small transactions are also prohibited by the base, given it's the easiest way for a rogue settler to come in and sell something poisonous and run away. 

Thus, even if you are selling a blade of grass, you need to have a permit. 

Whether you sell one blade of grass or a thousand tonnes of grass makes no difference. 

Rowan decided to sell the grass for feeding the many animals, and vegetables for the normal people. On top of that, he could sell diesel. 

He looked at his watch. 

'Ah! About time.' Rowan thought. 

Just as expected, his phone rang. Rowan left it ring three times, before picking up the phone with the air of a king.

From his single jaunt in the biofuel farm, Rowan knows the bio-fuel is almost always checked for quality. It is easy to make diesel. After all, as long as you throw shit together, and stir it once, the oil is produced. However, it's not easy to make high quality diesel. 

Thus, the trade he proposed with Edy is just a feint. 

What he really wants is to be able to sell to city hall in bulk. 

As expected, it was Edy on the call. 

" Damn Bro ! you are good. " Edy said, as soon as he picked up the call. 

" Where am I as good as you, the city lord's son ! " Rowan answered in a pretentious snooty voice. 

" Come on ! No need to be humble in front of me. " Edy answered. 

" How could that be ! I am but a little merchant. Humble needs to be my second name. Now, may I ask, what does the mighty second son of the city lord want with me ? " Rowan asked. 

" I want all the diesel you have on hand. I will pay plus five on the market rate. " Edy answered. 

" Tsk! Tsk! Little Edy ! You have grown a lot, but you haven't grown enough to buy out this brother. Tell me how much you want, then let us set a price." Rowan answered leisurely. 

Edy paused on the other side. 

" Big brother ! You are like my own brother ! Are you really sure you want me to call the number that I want ? Are you sure you can fulfill our order if I call that number ? " Edy asked. 

After all, Edy worked for the city government. 

A city's need for fuel is on a different scale from a personal merchant. 

This is exactly the reason Rowan went for Edy rather than selling retail. 

" Don't stall for time. Call the number. " Rowan urged. 

" Thousand cubic meters ! " Edy said.

Rowan knew he called this ridiculous number because he thought Rowan would never be able to deliver. 

Incidentally, Rowan could. 

" Sure, No problem. Are you sure you could pay market plus five ? " Rowan asked teasingly. 

He could hear the sound of crashing on the other side. 

Rowan snickered, imagining Edy's expression as he fell down.